* GUYON, GENERAL. RICHARD DEBAUFRE GUYON was born March 31, 1813, at Walcot, near Bath, Someraetshire, in which city he received his early education. His grandfather was a captain in the Dragoon Guards; his father, John Guyon, of Richmond, Surrey, was a commander in the royal navy, and died in 1844. Richard Guyon was iutended for the army, and at an early age held a commission in the Surrey militia. At the age of eighteen he obtained a commission in the Hungarian Hussara of the Austrian army, and after some years' service attained the rank of lieutenant, and was appointed aide-de camp to Field-Marshal Baron Splcnyi, commander of the Hungarian life-guards. In November 1838 he married the daughter of Baron Splenyi, and soon afterwards retired to the neighbourhood of Pesth, where his wife's relations resided, and where he spent his time iu country-occupationa and field-sports.
In September 1848, when Jellachich, the Ban of Croatia, invaded Hungary, Guyon offered his services to the Hungarian diet, and received the appointment of Major of the Honvede, or national guards. On the 29th of September he contributed materially to the defeat of Jellachich at Sukoro. Iu the battle of Schwechet, near Vienna, ou October 30th, Major Guyon with his raw troops achieved at Mannaworth the only successes of that disastrous day, when, his horse having been shot under him, he led his men to the charge on foot, and armed them with the muskets of the slain Austrians, iu place of the scythes with which many of them had fought. He was rewarded by being raised to the rank of Colonel on the field of battle. He was afterwards raised to the rank of General at Debreczin. He commanded the rear of Gorges army on the march from Peath to Upper Hungary ; and at Ipolyaag (January 10, 1849), by a daring and skilful effort, saved the baggage from the pursuing Austrians. On the 5th of February, with 10,000 Hungarians, he stormed the defiles and heights of Branyiazko, defeuded by 25,000 Austrian troops under General Schlick, took priaouers and baggage to a large amount, and cleared the way for the van of the army to piss, Gorgei having vainly attempted to turn the defiles by a flank movement. At the battle of
Kapolna (February 26) he commanded a division of Dembinaki's army. On the 21st of April he entered the fortress of Komori: with a small body of troops, though it was then closely besieged by the Austrian troops, and announced to the despairing garrison the approach of Giirgei with a relieving army. When Giirgei was appointed minister of war, General Guyon for a time performed the duties of the office, In order to enable Gorge' to retain hia command-in-chief. On the 9th of August the Austrian and Hungarian armies met near Ternesvar, where the impetuous bravery of Guyon and his Hussara could not save the Hungarian army from a defeat. On the 11th of August Kosauth resigned his office of goveruor, and named Giirgei dictator, who on the 17th of August put an cud to the war by an unconditional surrender.
Guyon, Beta, Dembinski, Kmety, and other officers who had not been iucluded in the surrender, made their escape with much diffi culty to Turkey, where, in defiance of the conjoint demand of Austria and Russia, they were protected by the aultaci. After some time Guyon was joined at Constantinople by his wife, whose property in Hungary had been confiscated by the Austrian government. He was offered and accepted service under the Turkish government; and though he decidedly refused to become a Mohammedan, was sent to Damascus with the rank of lieutenant-general on the staff, and with the title of Konrechid Pasha. In November 1853 he was directed to proceed from Damascus to the army in Asia Minor, and reached Kara by a aeries of rapid journeys. There he had the appointment of chief of the staff and president of the military council, but without any real command over an army of 15,000 undisciplined troops under twenty-one pashas, each with the rauk of a general. He was allowed however to organise the army and to construct defences. That organisation and theca defeucea, though doubtless much improved afterwards by General Williams and his officers, became a basis for the heroic defence of Kars.
(The Patriot and the Hem; General Guyon on the Battle-Fields of Hungary and Asia, by Arthur Kinglako.)